MEMBER IN THE SPOTLIGHT Lester Lackie, RN Only a capable person could succeesfidly fill more than one position. Lester Lackie, RN, is more than capable. He does the jobs of five. Chosen as February’s “Member in the Spotlight,” Lackie exemplifies AORN’s traditions, professionally and organizationally. He is an operating room supervisor, and also runs the Los Angeles Glendora Hospital recovery room, central service office and purchasing department. He is an association expert, family man, community leader, and student. Lackie’s nursing career and subsequent AORN activity were spurred in 1943, when World War I1 saw him assisting in the Camp Pendleton Marine Base operating room. Transferred to the USS Gasconde, an attack transport, he again took OR duties for ten months, and by the finale of his naval career, he was named pharmicist’s mate 2/C. Orderly duties consumed Lackie’s first
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months out of the service, and in 1952 he ended formal nursing studies at LA County General Hospital, and remained in their operating room for seven years. In 1961, after an OR stay with a small California hospital, he took the Glendora positions he now holds-the positions discovered through AORN. Approximately 250 operations per month are done in Lackie’s surgical suite, consisting of three operating room and one cyst0 room, open 24 hours per day, staffed five days per week. The hospital, built in 1958 is the only hospital in a small community valley 20 miles east of Los Angeles. It is equipped for emergency cases, and one operating room and recovery room remain open Saturdays. Lackie functions successfully as a leader, and compatibility such as his is necessary in the OR-where the supervisor and personnel work hand-in-hand. His staff includes 19 employees in the combined surgical, recovery, central s e w A ORN Journal
their family activities-dancing. They are sometimes classed as profeseionals. Both the Lackie nurse8 enjoy travel, bridge and collections. They particularly enjoy tourist spots in the United States, and American stamp and coin savings. Nineteen-year-old twins and a third son, 15, captivate most of their “at-home” hours, the older boys &dying at UCLA, and California Polytechnic Institute. The youngest is a high school freshman. A community leader, Lackie has spent the past few years filling roles 88 Sunday school teacher, scouting cubmaster, scout district commissioner, and scoutmaster. He enjoys public speaking, and his writing ability was published last June in the AORN Journal. Only a highly capable man could tackle all these activities successfully, and go back for more. Lackie does. He also studies-since 1964 With busy doily schedules, Lackie sometimes he has been enrolled on a part-time basis at LA gmbs a ,few seconds for quick study. He is a State University. part time student at LA State University. The man of numerous capabilities and talente ice and purchasing areas, and of his 12 OR and blames his success on his mother-“She said RR assistants, seven have worked with him for once you start something you should always eight years or more. finish it the best way you know how,” he Attendance at all local and national meetings points out simply. makes Lackie, elected “Mr. LA” by delegates at Only an outstanding man could use a the Boston Congress, a welcome member. His mother’s little warning to spark his life’s work. years of experience in officers’ seats in the Los Angeles chapter, as well as the national level, have included local stints as president, vice president, program committee, and nominating committee chairman. He has served the national group as head of the 1957 Congress Hospitality Committee and is completing a two-year term in the nominating committee chair. He calls a male voice a “stabilizing influence,” among the female nurses at meetings and quips, “When they hear a male voice from the The Lackie family boasts varied interests. Here, crowd they stop their strife and listen.” Family influence helped Lackie more than a two Lackie RNs join their sports-minded sons little, when he decided his career, as his wife, in the ftont yard a t their home. The oldest her mother and sister all claim RN degrees. Mrs. boys, 19-year-old twins Frank and Charles, are Lackie, another member of AORN, accom- physical education majors at their respective panies him to yearly Congresses, and they are colleges. Fifteen-year-old Richard has just enable to use social events to exhibit another of tered high school.
Februury 1970
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